Note: This club is currently on hiatus.
This is a book club that aims for your entire book to be read and commented on. We are always looking for dedicated members who want to improve their writing and reviewing skills. In need of useful feedback th...
For those of you who have already been in book clubs and have experience with reviewing, we're not going to make you read this entire chapter. Instead, this first part (up until the chapter divider) is for you guys. Here, we'll give a quick overview of the kind of reviews we are (and aren't) expecting from you. After the chapter divider, we'll go into more detail with examples.
For every chapter you read, we'd like you to at least write an overall outline comment on what you thought of the chapter. This outline comment should be at least 5 sentences long and should include comments from the following areas: Writing mechanics (spelling, punctuation, verb tense, writing style, etc.), characterization, plot development, descriptions and/or world building, and an overall impression of the chapter. Comment on each of these and you've hit five sentences; it shouldn't be difficult. Feel free to add any other constructive feedback you feel is relevant, too; you don't have to limit yourself to five sentences.
We'd like you to use the "sandwich method". This is a method for giving critiques in a nice way. It looks like this: start with a positive comment (something they did well), then mention something they could improve on, and finally end on a positive note again.
Very important: be specific in your comments. Try and give suggestions wherever you can. Don't just say, "I liked this chapter." Instead, explain why you liked it. What was good about it? What was it that kept your interest? Don't just say, "The characters aren't very convincing", but explain what wasn't good about them. Maybe the dialogue doesn't sound quite right, or their personalities weren't convincing because they didn't have strengths and flaws.
Remember: There's always something good to say about a story. Always. On the other hand, there's also always something to improve. Nobody is perfect. If you go through an entire book without giving the author anything they could improve, you're probably doing something wrong.
On a final note, it is highly recommended that you use inline comments. This is not mandatory, but is extremely helpful, especially for spelling/grammar errors. You are allowed to refer back to your inline comments when you write your final outline review. For example, if you notice halfway through the story that a character suddenly seems to have a different personality, just mention it inline. When you get to the outline review, you can refer back to your inline comment and say, "I noticed that there were a couple instances in which Bobby acted completely different from his usual personality. I've mentioned one such instance inline, but there were a few more times where he suddenly started dancing, while he usually seems like quite a reserved character."
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This section is for those that are new to critiquing. We'll go a bit more in-depth about what we expect from your reviews. We do this by showing you a whole bunch of examples.
There are a lot of different areas in which you could give feedback. Here, we'll give an overview of the most common areas, but if something else stands out to you, just comment on it. As we mentioned, being specific is very important, so these examples will all be specific to the story.
